WHAT IT DOES: Although it strongly resembles a players cavity-back iron, this design makes a more brazen push toward distance. Notably, the long and middle irons are forged from a variant of chromoly steel—the same metal at the root of the company’s Hot Metal game-improvement iron—to boost distance and to spread out the yardage gaps in the clubs where the gaps tend to be more compressed. 

WHY WE LIKE IT: Legend has it that Mizuno founder Rihachi Mizuno required the company’s baseballs to bounce precisely to his eye level—4 feet, 5 inches—when dropped from a height of 16.5 feet, or they were rejected. Such dedication to precision continues in this iron. Consider the hidden milled slots in the soles of the 4- through 7-iron. Those slot shapes are distinct for each iron—the slot on the 4-iron is wider and deeper to enhance distance. The slots on the 5- and 6-iron are slightly T-shape to provide a measure of heel-toe weighting, and the slot on the 7-iron is as thin as possible to smooth the transition to the one-piece forgings used in the 8- and 9-iron and pitching wedge. Some might say this set is ahead of its time. We say it’s a potential template for players irons right now. Read  more >>